John Reiner (born 1956) is a cartoonist who collaborates with writer

Bunny Hoest Bunny Hoest (born 1932), sometimes labeled The Cartoon Lady, is the writer of several comic strips, including ''The Lockhorns'', ''Laugh Parade'', and ''Howard Huge'', the first of which she inherited from her late husband Bill Hoest.King Features: ...

on three cartoon series: ''

The Lockhorns ''The Lockhorns'' is a United States panel (comic strips), single-panel cartoon created September 9, 1968 by Bill Hoest and distributed by King Features Syndicate to 500 newspapers in 23 countries. It is continued today by Bunny Hoest and John Re ...

'', syndicated by

King Features King Features Syndicate, Inc. is a American content distribution and animation studio, consumer product licensing and print syndication company owned by Hearst Communications that distributes about 150 comic strips, newspaper columns, editorial c ...

, and ''

Laugh Parade ''Laugh Parade'' was a group of weekly gag cartoons written by Bunny Hoest and drawn by John Reiner. It ran in '' Parade'', a Sunday newspaper magazine supplement. ''Laugh Parade'' displayed three or four single-panel cartoons, one of which was ' ...

'' and ''

Howard Huge ''Howard Huge'' is a cartoon series written by Bunny Hoest and illustrated by John Reiner. Created by Bill Hoest, the series had 80 million readers, since it ran in the Sunday supplement magazine, ''Parade'' from 1980 to 2007, continuing on a websi ...

'' (both for ''

Parade A parade is a procession of people, usually organized along a street, often in costume, and often accompanied by marching bands, float (parade), floats, or sometimes large balloons. Parades are held for a wide range of reasons, but are usually ce ...

'' magazine).

Life and career

Born in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, Reiner was raised on

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United Sta ...

, where he graduated from Smithtown High School in 1974. He attended the

State University of New York at Stony Brook Stony Brook University (SBU), officially the State University of New York at Stony Brook, is a public research university in Stony Brook, New York. Along with the University at Buffalo, it is one of the State University of New York system's ...

, where he was a contributing artist to ''Statesman'', the student newspaper. He was a psychology major, graduating in 1978. '' Mad'' cartoonist

Mort Drucker Morris "Mort" Drucker (March 22, 1929 – April 9, 2020) was an American caricaturist and comics artist best known as a contributor for over five decades in '' Mad'', where he specialized in satires on the leading feature films and televisio ...

, in 1974, encouraged him to consider cartooning as a career, and the following year, he began work on

Joe Simon Joseph Henry Simon (October 11, 1913 – December 14, 2011) was an American comic book writer, artist, editor, and publisher. Simon created or co-created many important characters in the 1930s–1940s Golden Age of Comic Books and served as the ...

's humor magazines. Along with pages for

Marvel Comics Marvel Comics is an American comic book publishing, publisher and the flagship property of Marvel Entertainment, a divsion of The Walt Disney Company since September 1, 2009. Evolving from Timely Comics in 1939, ''Magazine Management/Atlas Co ...

, Reiner did freelance advertising art, humorous illustrations and political caricatures. In 1984, he was an assistant on the comic strip ''Benchley'', which

Jerry Dumas Gerald John "Jerry" Dumas (June 6, 1930 – November 12, 2016) was an American cartoonist, best known for his ''Sam and Silo'' comic strip. Dumas was also a writer, illustrator, and essayist, and a columnist for the '' Greenwich Time''. Biograph ...

and Drucker created to satirize the Washington political scene.

The Hoest studio

Bill Hoest William Pierce Hoest (February 7, 1926 – November 7, 1988) was an American cartoonist best known as the creator of the gag panel series, '' The Lockhorns'', distributed by King Features Syndicate to 500 newspapers in 23 countries, and ''Laugh ...

needed an assistant for his strips and cartoons, and in 1986, he hired Reiner to help on ''The Lockhorns'', ''

Agatha Crumm ''Agatha Crumm'' is a newspaper comic strip created by the cartoonist Bill Hoest (creator of ''The Lockhorns'') and distributed by King Features Syndicate. The strip ran from October 24, 1977, until 1997. ''Agatha Crumm'' was Hoest's third strip, ...

'' and ''

What a Guy! ''What a Guy!'' is an American comic strip created by Bill Hoest and Bunny Hoest, the team responsible for '' The Lockhorns'' and '' Agatha Crumm''. It began in March 1987, just over a year before Hoest's death in 1988. The ''What a Guy!'' daily ...

'' Eventually, he was assisting on all the Hoest cartoons and strips. After Hoest's 1988 death, his widow Bunny Hoest kept the family business going, and Reiner remained as the artist, working in the turret studio of the Hoest mansion in Lloyd Neck, Long Island. Reiner commented, “We get ideas for ''The Lockhorns'' from everyday observation, from interesting people, funny situations, driving or even at dinner.”Modebe, Onochie. "The Lockhorns: An Interview with Bunny Hoest". ''Levittown Tribune'', October 1, 2010.

Exhibitions

''The Lockhorns'', Memorial Gallery, Sinclair Hall,

Farmingdale State College The State University of New York at Farmingdale (Farmingdale State College or SUNY Farmingdale) is a public college in East Farmingdale, New York. It is part of the State University of New York. The college was chartered in 1912 as a school of ap ...

, September 14-November 14, 2010.

Awards

He received the

National Cartoonists Society The National Cartoonists Society (NCS) is an organization of professional cartoonists in the United States. It presents the National Cartoonists Society Awards. The Society was born in 1946 when groups of cartoonists got together to entertain the ...

's Gag Cartoon Award in 1994.

References

External links

Michael Durand: "John Reiner"
1956 births American comic strip cartoonists Living people Artists from New York City Stony Brook University alumni {{US-cartoonist-stub